There are times when it's okay to cry. When real tragedy strikes, when heroes need to be remembered, or when someone does something a little special to let us know that there is still beauty and kindness in the world, then it belongs here. And there's no shame in that.

Examples

open/close all folders

9/ 11 Terrorist Attacks on USA

For those who don't know, these attacks were the opening act of the War On Terror, in which some 150k (including 10k US citizens) have died so far (as of 2014).

"The view from my apartment was the World Trade Center, and now it's gone. [....] But you know what the view is now? The Statue of Liberty. And you can't beat that."

Conan O Brien's post 9/11 monologue. He never cried or even got choked up, but there were several moments when he paused to take a deep breath and it was obvious that he was trying not to lose it. He bluntly stated that he had no idea how they were going to go back to doing shows the way they used and then got very personal and discussed his Catholic upbringing and mentioned that he so desperately needed help to deal with the horror of what had happened that he did something he hadn't done in 8 years—went to church and prayed. He described sitting in St. Patrick's Cathedral and suddenly realizing that although the towers had been knocked down, that this beautiful building was still standing and there was still a lot of beauty in the world. It was during this speech that he first urged his young viewers to shun cynicism. Seven years later, on June 13, 2008, he simply walked onto the stage without any music or intro and informed his audience that he had just learned of the death of his friend Tim Russert. After talking about him for several minutes, he played several clips from Russert's appearances on the show.

Jay Leno stayed off for about a week, then returned with a very quiet show. He said America would have to change, that we needed to become inclusive. He questioned whether he could even continue his show, but that everyone needs a good laugh, including the firefighters and responders. Crosby, Stills and Nash appeared alongside John McCain, and later sang "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" to recorded guitar by the late Michael Hedges. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

NJ Burkett was the reporter who, famously, witnessed and narrowly escaped the collapse of the South Tower. It's still hard for him to talk about. He gave a riveting keynote speech at a memorial in 2012.

Muhammad Ali gave a brief interview a few days later with a plea for understanding, saying "This is not Islam," and trying to explain his faith. He also spoke on America: A Tribute To Heroes alongside Will Smith.

This video. A large group of New Yorkers, including a great-grandfather and a young woman who both picked up body parts in the aftermath of 9/11, argue about the attacks. Suddenly, this happens.

Several years after 9/11, a US Air force Pilot summed up the events of United Flight 93 with the following words:

They took care of it.

Thisdrawing. 9/11 seen by the eyes of a child: the Two Towers hugging each other while crying...

This message: It is September 11th, 2011. I am speaking to those of my generation, those who began life in the late 20th century, and saw, through the eyes of a child, the beginnings of a new millennium. We saw 9/11. Our parents sent us to play in another room, and we walked away, wondering why they had tears in their eyes, what we had seen on the screen that we so often watched a yellow sponge prancing around on, what was throwing up those pillars of blackest smoke and flickering fire so huge our minds could not comprehend their size, so young were we. And even when we learned what it was, the wreckage of two skyscrapers who bad men had flown planes into, we did not realize until later: we had been attacked. As clearly as Pearl Harbor so many years before, we had been attacked. But what was Pearl Harbor to us? Something of the past, something we hardly thought about, something, even now, we regard as just another set of facts we have to slave over for our history tests. This is the bottom of the Tearjerker page. Look up at all the entries recorded. We don't have Phoebe Prince in our history books. Nor the girl who got to watch Up right before she died of cancer. Nor Genie, the feral child. Nor the too many other personal instances of tragedy: suicide, kidnappings, torture, murder. No, we have World War I and II, George Washington, Martin Luther King. What do they mean to us, though? Only facts to be forgotten when we get that A or B. That is a tearjerker: we have forgotten our past. So many things newsworthy in our time will be forgotten in the wake of tomorrow's news. Our children will forget Columbine, because they'll have their own school shootings. They'll forget 9/11, because they'll have their own wars. So, to those of my generation, I have a favor to ask: Never Forget. Keep your own history books. Remember those you have lost. Tell your children of that guy in 10th grade, who was killed by a drunk driver. Of your cousin, who died fighting terrorists in a faraway country. Of 9/11, the greatest tragedy of our childhood. Teach them of the pain, the sorrow, the loss. But... but, my friends, most of all, most imperative of all, teach them of what we learned from those tragedies. From your friend, don't drink and drive. From your cousin, that dying to protect one's family and friends may be the greatest sacrifice of all. And from 9/11... that, when the stone and metal that we have built up in our lifetime comes crashing down as molten rain, when the blood of our friends and family flows through the streets, and the cries of the mourners echo on every block, that is when we pick each other up, and, not as Americans, but as good humans who wish to see an end to war and death, and we stand, shoulder to shoulder, and face the twisting, black storm before us, not with hesitation or fear, but with squared jaws and clenched fists, and we shout out in one voice, brothers and sisters, children of God, to those who would tear us apart, "Our light will not be extinguished!" And then it will be them who quake with fear, who hide in their holes and avert their eyes from the glory and strength of those who march into the fight armed with love, honor, and memory. So I ask you: remember. Remember this page. Remember every page. Remember every friend. Remember every life. Because, as surely as the sun will set, there will be another 9/11, another school shooting... another World War. So do not let our children go unprepared to face that same storm. Because that would end in the worst tearjerker imaginable.

Rick Rescorla, a retired U.S. Army colonel whose acts on this day are described in Heroic Sacrifice and a few other pages called his wife on the phone and said this: "Stop crying. I have to get these people out safely. If something should happen to me, I want you to know I've never been happier. You made my life."

Prominent deaths

Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays. What do they have in common? They all died in the same week.

December 8th 1980; sports commentator Howard Cosell is commentating on a football game between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football, when suddenly the mood of the commentary changes: "Yes, we have to say it. Remember this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous, perhaps, of all of The Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival."

Furthermore, the rest of The Beatles' reactions, most notably Paul, who said that it was "a drag". You can just tell that he was a little bit dead inside when he'd said that.

Even though George's death was expected for Ringo and Paul, it came as a surprise for many fans who didn't know the extent of his illness.

After the 2001 Daytona 500, NASCAR President Mike Healton made the most heartbreaking announcement in his career.

"This is undoubtedly one of the toughest announcements that I’ve ever personally had to make. But after the accident in Turn 4 at the end of the Daytona 500, we’ve lost Dale Earnhardt."

The stories about Emmett Till's death:

Eyes on the Prize leads off with this story. Emmett's great-uncle, Rev. Moses Wright, was asked to identify the man who took Emmett away. Wright had been told he would be killed if he said anything: but he stood up, pointed and said "Dar he" (there he is). Reporter Ernest Withers took a picture◊, defying the judge's orders not to take pictures during the trial.note He said he wanted to document that "intimidation of Delta blacks was no longer as effective as in the past", and that Rev. Wright "crossed a line that no one could remember a black man ever crossing in Mississippi". At the very end of the series, narrator Julian Bond says They had the courage to stand up and point out the road all of us must travel. Brothers, sisters, children, all the colors of the earth, standing up. Still standing up. Amen. They again show the photo of the old man whose courage started the whole thing.

Phil Ochs' song Too Many Martyrs, about the deaths of both Medgar Evers and Emmett Till, is a real Tear Jerker.

"Too many martyrs and too many dead Too many lies too many empty words were said Too many times for too many angry men Oh let it never be again

And they laid him in his grave while the bugle sounded clear laid him in his grave when the victory was near While we waited for the future, for freedom through the land The country gained a killer and the country lost a man"

Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student who was beaten to death in Laramie, Wyoming for being gay.

His father's courtroom speech, of which the full version can be seen here.

You left him out there by himself, but he wasn’t alone. There were his lifelong friends with him—friends that he had grown up with. You’re probably wondering who these friends were. First, he had the beautiful night sky with the same stars and moon that we used to look at through a telescope. Then, he had the daylight and the sun to shine on him one more time—one more cool, wonderful autumn day in Wyoming. His last day alive in Wyoming. His last day alive in the state that he always proudly called home. And through it all he was breathing in for the last time the smell of Wyoming sagebrush and the scent of pine trees from the snowy range. He heard the wind—the ever-present Wyoming wind—for the last time. He had one more friend with him. One he grew to know through his time in Sunday school and as an acolyte at St. Mark’s in Casper as well as through his visits to St. Matthew’s in Laramie. He had God. I feel better knowing he wasn’t alone.

The Suicide of Amanda Todd, which took place on October 10, 2012. The result of her death was the video she'd posted a month prior on the 7th of September going viral. The video detailed the twists and turns her life had taken, all for the worse. It detailed her one mistake of giving in to some requests for a flash of her breasts which ended up being used as blackmail by a still unknown stalker. The picture was released and after finding out that it was spreading like wildfire over the internet she developed anxiety, depression, and panic disorder which only grew worse as time went by and picture continued to plague her along with students at her school. After a couple years and changes in schools the infamous picture continued to haunt her. After getting to a school where she could escape the picture, a boy she used to know asked if she wanted to hook up and she agreed. Later, he, his girlfriend, and others came to her school and pointed out how — despite her current school apparently having no knowledge of the picture — no one sat with her and she had no friends. After she was assaulted and insulted by the girlfriend and her cohorts, she ran and crawled in a ditch. After being taken home, she drank bleach which was successfully flushed out of her system. Continually being harassed and made fun of for failing to kill herself her mental condition continued to worsen leading to an overdose in her anti-depressants which she also survived. She continued to be tagged on Facebook in pictures of ditches and bleach and was told to try a different type of bleach so she wouldn't mess it up next time among other things. The video simply ends with the last two flash cards saying "I have nobody ... I need someone" and "My name is Amanda Todd" The description made it clear that this was meant to be a message of strength, saying that despite everything that was done to her, despite the horrors she was put through, she was still there and searching for something better. This makes it doubly painful when it turns out that she lost the battle and killed herself just a month later in her home. She was just fifteen. There was world wide media coverage as the event moved even the Premier of British Columbia who gave a stirring speech about ending bullying. The investigation into the person who originally disseminated the picture and those who circulated it and aided in harassing her is ongoing, which is all that needs to be said on the matter.

Seeing as he was also suffering from a particularly nasty bout of depression, it's disheartening to hear that a man like Williams who brought an incredible amount of joy to the world, couldn't find enough for himself in such a time of need. Compounding the tragedy was the fact that he had recently been diagnosed with diffuse Lewy body dementia and would soon be unable to continue his career. On a tearjerker of heartwarming, the overwhelming amount of support and love for Robin's passing has been incredibly touching.

Beloved former voice actress Christine Cavanaugh had passed way in her home on December 22nd 2014 from (currently) unknown circumstances. She was 51.

The passing of Edd Gould on March 25th, 2012, after a six-year long struggle with leukemia.

The death of Terry Pratchett on March 12th 2015, after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2007. The last three tweets on his account said "AT LAST SIR TERRY. WE MUST WALK TOGETHER. Terry took Death's arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. The end."

His son's eulogy for him. He spoke it in three languages; English, Mandarin Chinese and Malay.

The Kennedy assassination drew strong emotions from many Americans. Perhaps most memorably was the normally stoic Walter Cronkite's on-air announcement.

From Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official: "President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time. 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago." *pauses, choked by emotion* Vice President Johnson *clears throat* has left the hospital in Dallas, but we do not know to where he has proceeded; presumably he will be taking the oath of office shortly and become the 36th President of the United States.

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, passed away on July 11, 2015 from bile duct growth at the age of 55. What really hit this for many fans was that his death was considered a My God, What Have I Done? moment for them: their last reaction towards him was anger over the lackluster E3 2015 and his apology for it and promise to make the next year one better. He can't do it for them and they never got to say "sorry".

The tragic death of famed composer James Horner on June 22 2015 due to an airplane crash. He was 61.

Other

This story titled "But You Didn't", adapted from the true story about a dead American soldier and his widowed wife from the start of their relationship.

This video. A twelve-year old boy is infected with HIV, has a 1 in 3 chance of survival and because of where he lives, he can't even be told. His name had to be changed to protect his identity, because of the sort of persecution people with HIV in Swaziland undergo. Listen closely to Thabo introducing himself and you can hear where his name is censored.

In 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were preparing to go to the moon, Bill Safire wrote a speech called "In Event of Moon Disaster" that was to be read by President Nixon in case the astronauts died or were stranded on the moon due to a mission disaster. With gut-wrenching lines such as "These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice," it is a relief that the Apollo 11 mission to the moon was a success.

The crew of Apollo 11 would instead leave a plaque that read: Here Men From The Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace For All Mankind.

I had a hell of a journey ahead of me, but at least I wasn't going to die right HERE.

Last year, something eerily similar happened to a man named Jonathan Metz. While cleaning out his basement, his arm became trapped behind his boiler. For three days he struggled to break loose, and aside from himself, was worried sick about his dog Portia, who he could hear barking frantically, locked in upstairs. As time went on, he noticed her barking spells becoming fainter and less frequent, coinciding with his own weakening state, and finally resolved to cut his arm off in order to get free. His story was featured on the TV show I Survived. At the end of the episode, the viewer was given an update on his condition, and this final footnote was included:

"Jonathan's dog Portia also survived."

This quote from Robert A. Heinlein. One of the most inspirational quotes on the potential of the human race ever written:

"And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown — in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability … and goodness … of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth, that we always make it just by the skin of our teeth — but that we will always make it … survive … endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes, will endure — will endure longer than his home planet, will spread out to the other planets, to the stars, and beyond, carrying with him his honesty, his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage — and his noble essential decency. This I believe with all my heart."

Elizabeth I of England was responsible for at least one, while waiting for the Armada with her troops on the shore. Can also be considered a Moment of Awesome:

My loving people, we have been persuaded by some, that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit ourselves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you, I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear; I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subjects. And therefore I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, by your forwardness, that you have deserved rewards and crowns; and we do assure you, on the word of a prince, they shall be duly paid you. In the mean my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble and worthy subject; not doubting by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and by your valor in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over the enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.

In Redcoat a social history of the eighteenth century British army by Richard Holmes, a soldier is quoted describing his return. He finds all his childhood playmates have forgotten him. He invites his father to the pub and when his father comes he has given up his son for lost and sees only an amiable stranger buying him a drink until the soldier tells him. Then the mother comes. When she sees her son she goes into a faint out of shock and joy. The whole story goes double for Heartwarming Moments.

This video captures Pope John Paul II's last "hello" to the world. Have tissues ready when you realize he was doing this while suffering Parkinson's and lacking a voice.

This. It's so heartbreaking to watch this poor dying dog who was rescued from the streets spending his last moments having love and comfort for the first time in his life. It's incredibly hard not to feel bad for the other dog sniffing the body. He had just made a new friend, and he is gone before they can get to know each other. It seems that he knows that his new friend is gone, and he is saying goodbye to a friend that he never really got to know. It's impossible not to cry while watching this. It's so sad.

It does double as a Heartwarming Moment, for what those people did for that suffering dog was extremely kind. Ol' Boy only wanted to be loved and to experiences the warmth of home, and they answered the call. His ashes being spread at the end probably also qualifies.

Tears for Sarah Jane, a fan-made video memorial to Elisabeth Sladen in tribute to the late actress and her tremendous impact on the Doctor Who legacy and community. The quality is so high that the video was endorsed by the BBC itself, recommended in Doctor Who Magazine.

Many animals mourn. Elephants are the most well known, but even crows and magpies have anecdotal sightings of "funerary rites".

Finches also mourn - in a much more depressing way. They mate for life, and if their partner dies, the other one won't be long for the world. Many a pet owner have had their hearts broken when they had a pair of finches, one of them died, and the other one just huddled in a corner until they died too.

Same thing can happen with goldfish. Goldfish can do fine alone, but as you typically find them with tankmates, chances are that unless you get a second goldfish, they can get rather lonely. It's more sad, however, when you get two at the same time at a young age.

Even sadder: this young boy died just days after the wedding ceremony. *sniff*

Toward the end of the 1996 Robert D. Kaplan book The Ends of the Earth, he talks about going around Cambodia and witnessing the work of the NG Os trying to make life better for the average Cambodian villager. Reading about the dedication of some of these volunteers (e.g. the young, idealistic, vegetarian woman who kept on going into villages to help villagers in spite of having received death threats from the Khmer Rouge, who were still very much active in the jungle) is enough to bring tears to one's eyes, but the saddest part was reading about a ramshackle hospital (which was highly valued because it simply existed) and a young Cambodian girl, maybe four or five years old, struggling to breathe because she was dying of tuberculosis and the only medical technology available to her in this desperately poor country was an oxygen tank.

For that matter, Cambodian history from the 1970s is heartbreaking in and of itself. The Khmer Rouge and their murderous Year Zero-related campaign where they slaughtered their own kind because of arbitrary reasons (in The Ends of the Earth Kaplan points out that at least the Rwandan civil war/genocide made a little sense because it was one tribe vs. another, whereas in Cambodia no such "excuses" could be made for what the Khmer Rouge did) did a lot of damage in the country, both physical and psychological. Especially heartbreaking relating to the plight of that poor dying child was the fact that between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge killed off 90% of the country's doctors and similar numbers of scholars and intellectuals.

"What if I suddenly disappear tomorrow? What would you do? just curious ㅎㅎ"

"Don't Wait"

"I’m sorry that I was mad at you this morning it wasn't what i meant honey I love you forever"

Multiple ㅠ translate as tears/crying, while multiple ㅎ or ㅋ translate as laughter.

From 2006 these twovideos from the last in-house newscast produced by the WB/CW affiliate in Boston, WLVI-TV 56. It had been a Field Communications station; when that company sold off its' assets in the early 80s, Gannett bought the station. They soon debuted the Boston's market's first prime time news, simply titled The News at Ten. Veteran Boston anchor Jack Hynes was the first co-anchor, staying until 1990; Karen Marinella succeeded him. She stayed until the end of in-house news. By 2006, Tribune (who had bought WLVI in 1994) had shut down other WB station news operations in Philadelphia and San Diego and outsourced them to the NBC stations in those markets, and it was predicted that they would do the same to WLVI; they had been struggling in recent years against WFXT Fox 25's news, as well as the WBZ-4 (CBS) produced news on longtime rival/UPN station WSBK-38. They had been bought by Sunbeam TV, the owners of WHDH-7 NBC in Boston, and WSVN-7 (Fox) in Miami; (in)famous for their tabloid reporting. Hence, from the next night, the WHDH news team would produce and deliver a 10PM newscast. Jack Hynes appeared on the last ever newscast to lament the loss; after that, all the anchors, as well as so much of the staff that had made the newscast happen, bid goodbye to the viewers, before a last, silent shot of their set faded out, all to a sad guitar song, and the message, "Thanks for the Memories."

The Aberfan disaster. On 21 October 1966, a colliery spoil tip collapsed onto a primary school in the Welsh village of Aberfan, killing 116 children and 28 adults. Just to make it worse, the then-head of the National Coal Board, Lord Robens, refused to accept responsibility. A huge sum of money was raised for the villagers, and what did Robens do? He effectively stole part of it to sort the colliery out, rather than using the Coal Board's money.

An individual tearjerker comes from the reaction of one bereaved father at the inquest into the deaths of thirty of the kids. His child's name was read out, and the cause of death was given as asphyxiation and multiple injuries. The guy responded, "No, sir, buried alive by the National Coal Board." They tried to talk him down, but he insisted that he wanted that to be listed as the cause of death: "That is the feeling of those present. Those are the words we want to go on the certificate."

A real tear-jerker came for the Elizabeth II when she visited Aberfan in the aftermath, after a three-year-old girl presented her with a posy "from the remaining children of Aberfan". The famously unemotional Queen could just barely hold back the tears.

World War II is near universally regarded as one of the most, if not the most, horrific war to ever happen. Those who were persecuted and subsequently died totaled around 11 MILLION with 6 million of the deaths being exclusively Jewish. And thats ONLY for those who were persecuted and not the total stat which comes out around 60 million people total dying in the entire War. Then there's the issue with the Camps which were pretty much the most horrific thing people generally know about.

The Holocaust is perhaps the single most tragic event in human history, It could fill it's own page of Tear Jerker and Nightmare Fuel. But it's also full of Heartwarming Moments too, and it shows who we are in the face of evil. Above all, humans survive, they fight against tragedy, and they win. Humans can be the worst thing on the planet and the best, but everytime it's the good in the world that finds victory.

It's fairly well known that cats (our often solitary, aloof, independent little companions) purr both when happy and when in pain. The Tear Jerker comes with the probable reason why they purr when in pain. It's comforting. These creatures that would do almost anything to make sure no other creature can tell that they're hurting purr as a form of hugging themselves.

In the wake of Flight MH 370, the infamous Malaysian Airlines flight that mysteriously disappeared mid-flight, another tragedy has struck. MH17 was presumed to be shot down in Ukraine. Any further details would violate the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement, so we can't say anything further.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire: in 1911, the factory caught fire, and because of the unsafe conditions, 146 workers died, including 120 teenaged girls.

The youngest was 14 year old Rosaria Maltese, who died along with her mother and older sister. It was a full year before her mother's body was identified.

One girl survived by getting to the roof and was rescued by NYU students, but her cousin with whom she was close was not.

There is also the story of Joseph Wilson, who was identified by his pocket watch, all he owned of value and of his family. He was identified by his fiancee.

One account describes a young man helping women to the window and then dropping them, because that was the only escape they could make. The last one kissed him before letting him drop her; she was his lover. He then jumped from the window. None of them survived.

There was a famous chimpanzee named Washoe who was taught to use sign language. There was a caretaker working with her named Kat who did not take care of her for many weeks because she had a miscarriage. When Kat eventually came back Washoe did not want to see her at all and tried to ignore her, until Kat signed at her, "My baby died." Washoe was still for a while and then signed back "Cry" even though chimpanzees don't cry like humans do. When Kat tried to leave that day Washoe even insisted that she hug her. It's even worse if you know that Washoe had two of her own children die before that.

On April 16, 2014, a ferry sank off the coast of South Korea, killing over 300 people, including 250 students. A Reuters photographer went to some of the families who kept their children's bedrooms as a kind of memorial to them. The pictures of the neat rooms and belongings, including one girl's pet dog waiting patiently on her bed, are utterly heartbreaking to look at. Interspersed are quotes from family members and little facts about the students. [1]

Good children have died because of adults’ faults. The Sewol disaster taught us about the problems of our society, and adults should make efforts to fix them, although it’s too late. We have to strive to prevent any reoccurrence of this disaster and to build a culture that cherishes human life. Our children didn’t blame society. They tried hard to save each others’ lives and worried about their families. Don’t we have to learn from the efforts they showed in the last minutes of their lives?

The vice principal, Kang Min-kyu, who was rescued from the ferry and had organised the trip, committed suicide. His note stated that he wanted his ashes to be scattered at the site of the accident so that he could teach the children whose bodies weren't found.

War

Most British memorials from the First World War include the words "Their name liveth for evermore" (from Ecclesiasticus) and, for the unidentified dead "A Soldier of the Great War Known Unto God." The words are particularly poignant when you realize that the words were chosen by Rudyard Kipling, whose son was also killed during the war.

Kipling himself would write a rather poignant poem about this own son's death: "If any question why we died; Tell them, because our fathers lied."

Even worse still when you hear the story behind the poem. Kipling's son was near-sighted, however Kipling pressured the Army into taking him on, to be patriotic. In one battle, his glasses were knocked off and, while searching for them, he was shot. Kipling never forgave himself.

"Have you news of my boy Jack?" Not this tide. "When d'you think that he'll come back?" Not with this wind blowing, and this tide.

Almost all French memorials from the First World War include the word "Un Enfant De (town)... Mort Pour La France". Villages that are no more than wide places in the road will have such a memorial with a dozen names.

In the same vein that the Trope image in Reims, France there is a memorial that ends with these sentence.

For the next generations for them to know and to remember

And then,

Memorial of the 1914-1918, built in 1924 rebuilt in 2005 after its destruction in 1945

There is a poem written by a poet known only as W.E.K. He died in April 1917.

"At Last Post" Come home!—Come home! The winds are at rest in the restful trees: At rest are the waves of the sundown seas: And home—they're home— At home! At ease!

Many towns destroyed in WWI were never rebuilt, but the map wasn't updated. Where there used to be villages, now are only piles of rocks as memorials for the town and people living there.

The Devonshire Cemetry in Mametz seems today oddly positioned in a small patch of woods, however on the 1st of July 1916 it was the front line of the Battle of the Somme. An entire unit from the Devonshire Regiment was killed in the trenches and they were buried where they fell. One of their comrades left a wooden sign that simply stated "The Devonshires Held This Trench, The Devonshires Hold It Still." They still hold it to this very day, and those words have been immortalised as the memorial to their sacrifice.

The first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was established in Westminster Abbey for all the unrecovered British dead from WWI. The inscription reads like a national So Proud of You:

BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY OF A BRITISH WARRIOR UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY 11 NOV: 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V HIS MINISTERS OF STATE THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION

THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT WAR OF 1914 – 1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF FOR GOD FOR KING AND COUNTRY FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD

THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD HIS HOUSE

The inscription is framed by four Bible quotes:

THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS (top) UNKNOWN AND YET WELL KNOWN, DYING AND BEHOLD WE LIVE (side) GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS (side) IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE (base)

This is the only grave in the entirety of the abbey people are forbidden to walk over.

J. R. R. Tolkien rarely spoke or wrote of World War I, and for good reason: One has indeed personally to come under the shadow of war to feel fully its oppression; but as the years go by it seems now often forgotten that to be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than to be involved in 1939 and the following years. By 1918, all but one of my close friends were dead.

And some of the events during the war inspired him to write some of the saddest events in The Lord of the Rings.

The Menin Gate ceremony in Ypres (Ieper), the official memorial to all British soldiers without graves killed in Belgium. Especially the playing of the Last Post at this ceremony. And even more so when remembering that this has been done every single evening since 1928, with the exception of 4 years of occupation during World War 2. In fact the very evening it was liberated, the practice resumed... while there was still fighting elsewhere in the town. They restarted the ceremony as soon as the Gate was in friendly hands.

Field Marshal Herbert Plummer - a respected general from the First World War who cared deeply for his men - was the one who unveiled the Menin Gate memorial. Speaking to the families of the missing soldiers, he ended his speech with the words "At last, it can be said: He is not missing. He is here!"

And the search for the missing never really ended. Ninety years after their deaths, and fifty years since the last Commonwealth War Cemetery was opened, two hundred and fifty British and Australian soldiers will finally have a dignified grave. They will no longer be among the "missing". They will be here.

It's even more sobering when you look at the Menin Gate, and similarly the Thiepval Memorial and others, and you see them plastered with names, and realize that's just the ones that aren't commemorated with a grave of their own, and fell on only part of the front, and only for part of the war.

The sheer scale of the loss and suffering of the First World War is best illustrated by this story: Mrs Rosie Reader's son Alec was killed during the war, and was listed among the "missing". She made several trips to France, hoping to find his grave, or at least his name on one of the many memorials. She never found any trace of him, and died thinking that his sacrifice had been forgotten. The family would finally get closure over eighty years after the war. Rosie's grandchildren had made one last trip to France, and they finally found Alec. His name was at Thiepval.

The poem "In Flanders Fields" written by Canadian Army surgeon John McRae in WWI, after the death of his friend. He died in two and a half years after writing it.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields."

If that needs to be sadder, consider that the poppies were only growing because the artillery fire was so intense that it had turned up lower levels of dirt, and thus the poppies only grew there during (and shortly after) the war.

This poem is synonymous with Remembrance Day in the UK. If that wasn't enough to bring everyone present to tears, the Ode to Remembrance is also recited at each ceremony or service.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old, Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.

An Eala Bhàn (The White Swan), despite being written entirely in Scottish Gaelic, manages to rip your heart out through your soul by the time the poet is done telling his girlfriend to move on when he inevitably dies in France. The poet later did die... at home, in his eighties.

Another Gaelic poem, An Iolaire tells the story of the wreck of HMY Iolaire off the coast of the Isle of Lewis on the 1st of January, 1919. The yacht was carrying the young men of Lewis home from the Western Front when she struck some rocks and sank, about a mile from Stornaway harbour. 205 of the 280 men on board were drowned. They had survived the horrors of the trenches, only for their island to lose them when they were within sight of home. The poem tells of how the women of Lewis found the bodies of the men whose return they had long-awaited washed up on the shore the next day.

In the Essex Farm Cemetery by the dressing station where 'In Flanders Fields' was written there is a grave for 15-year-old Valentine Strudwick. He probably wasn't the only teenager who enlisted underage and got killed

The "Murambi Genocide Memorial""in Rwanda" (graphic images warning) is chilling in its simplicity. It consist of a school where the classrooms are full of the mummified bodies of the massacred and heartbreakingly some rooms full of dead children. The worst was seeing the faces frozen mid scream with visible wounds and still sporting hair and clothes... The fact the guide witnessed his entire family murdered on the site and has a hole from a bullet in his head turned really brings the horror even further home.

The town of Lidice in the Czech-Republic. Back in 1942, the entire town was destroyed by the Nazis after they were blamed for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. Today, the site where the town once stood is one big memorial to those Czechs who were killed in accordance with Eastern Theatre ('Russian Front') anti-partisan doctrine (i.e. killing absolutely everyone in the vicinity of every partisan attack). Among those killed were 88 children◊. It's heartbreaking.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy